2013 October Oak Cliff

S u r v i v o r S

Neighborhood N alists risked everythi N docume t a m iddle

Neighborhood photojour N alists risked everythi N g to docume N t a m iddle e ast battle

Plus: a man's journey across the south Pacific on a grass boat

Be LocaL IN oak Cliff

“If they gave star ratings to neighborhoods, I’m looking for one that would get five.”

to enjoy the softer side of mammography.

Monday Night Mammos at the Breast Center at Methodist Dallas

Finally, your annual mammogram is worth looking forward to. Join us for Monday Night Mammos*, where you will get a mammogram while we treat you to some well-deserved pampering. Relish in relaxation with a gentle hand rub and calming chair massage. Indulge your senses with aromatherapy and delight your palate with light spa cuisine. We’ll even valet park your car. And when it’s time for your mammo, you’ll receive fivestar treatment. Best of all, you’ll know results in 24 hours. Register today for peace of body, mind, and breast health.

The chef behind the ramen chef Justin Holt is running the kitchen at Driftwood while Omar Flores prepares new restaurant casa rubia.

Documenting Najaf

Forty-seven days at sea Neighborhood resident Greg Dobbs sailed from chile to easter Island in a boat made of reeds.

On The cOver: KAel AlfOrd And ThOrne AndersOn: Photo illustration by danny fulgencio

Top 5 most-read stories

1

10 things to know about the Horseshoe project

2

Winnetka Heights new home is on the market

3

Investigation Discovery show spotlights Oak Cliff serial killer

4

Sylvan Thirty goes vertical, Cox Farms to open in December

5

Restaurant news: Emporium Pies, Rush Patisserie, Local Oak, Gloria’s

Reader comments

“My former next-door neighbor still think he’s innocent!”

—Susie Miller on Investigation Discovery show spotlights Oak Cliff serial killer via Facebook

“Lockhart Smokehouse is awesome. I’ve been to the top four joints in the Texas Monthly list, and Lockhart’s isn’t too far behind at all in the meatsmoking department.”

—mglombard on Delicious: Lockhart Smokehouse via Advocate Daily Digest

“I hope Cox Market is ready. My last visit to the first location was not a good one. Hope they bring their A game!”

—Robin on Sylvan Thirty goes vertical, Cox Farms to open in December via Advocate Daily Digest

“Looks great! Can’t wait to check it out. I remember seeing Freddie King at Mother Blues back in those days!”

—Tina on Video: New trailer for ‘When Dallas Rocked’ via Advocate Daily Digest

“Not surprised. We have this creek running along Dart Rail lines and the mosquitoes are terrible in 75208, too. Right next to Elmwood. We have never been notified of any sprays this year.”

—Andrea Jennings on Oak Cliff has first West Nile case of season via Facebook

Read these and other stories on the Advocate Daily Digest: oakcliff.advocatemag.com

Stay in the know.

For daily news updates, visit oakcliff.advocatemag.com.

Also follow Oak Cliff Advocate on Facebook and @Advocate_OC on Twitter.

NevereNdiNg News

The magazine in your hand contains only a portion of what we report

Even though we’re in the magazine publishing business here at Advocate Media, we spend only about half of our day working on our magazines.

What do we do with the rest of the time?

Well, these days there are all kinds of ways to deliver news and information to readers.

For example, you may not know that every day — generally three or four times a day, in fact — we update our advocatemag. com website with neighborhood news and information that happens after one month’s magazine is completed and before another month’s magazine can be delivered.

Restaurant openings, neighborhood business news, crime updates, events you can attend — you can find all of this information at advocatemag.com in our Daily Digest. Because of timing and relevance, much of the daily news information on our website never appears in our magazine, so if you can make time to read both, you’ll know a whole lot more about what’s happening around you.

Don’t have time to check out our website every day? Sign up for our weekly emailed news update, which recaps some of the top stories from the past week’s daily digest, along with additional information, photos and videos that don’t make it into the magazine. To sign up for that weekly publication, go to advocatemag.com/newsletters.

We do the same thing with restaurant news and deals, except that emailed digest goes out every other week; you can sign up for that one at advocatemag.com/newsletters, too.

Say you’re a big Facebook fan and like to scroll through news on that site — like the Advocate on Facebook and let us stream daily updates directly to you that way. Same

with Twitter: Sign up to follow our Twitter account, and you’ll always be up-to-date as we report on all kinds of interesting neighborhood happenings and events.

OK, now say you have spare time for reading at lunch or a kids’ sporting event or anywhere you happen to be, but say you left your Advocate magazine at home. We have an app with our current and many of our past issues: Go to the Android or Apple iOS store, search for “Dallas Advocate” and download our app for use on your tablet or smartphone.

Our app gives you an interactive way to read the magazine and also connect with advertisers and groups we’re writing about, since most web links in the magazine are clickable right from the application if you’re looking for a local electrician, lawn guy, veterinarian, Realtor or whatever, you can search for what you’re seeking, check out their website directly from the magazine app, and make your decision about spending money right then and there.

And say your hot water heater just broke and you need a plumber right away: Go to advocatemag.com/classifieds, and there you’ll find virtually all of the local people who advertise in our magazine (and some who don’t) online and available at the click of a button.

Finally, if you’re a neighborhood business, we can help build your website, set up and manage your social media accounts, and continue making sure that you stay in contact with your customers, both existing and prospective.

We’re always working on more and better ways to bring neighborhood businesses together with neighborhood residents, and as I mentioned earlier, we’re spending a lot of our time doing so.

I hope you’ll keep reading our magazine, visiting our website and app, and checking out our social media sites to keep up to date with what’s happening throughout our neighborhood.

The reason I love to live and work in

Cliff is the people... it’s the people that make it so cool!”

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advertising consultants

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classified manager: PRIO BERGER

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publisher: CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

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senior editor: EMILY TOMAN

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editors:

WHITNEY THOMPSON

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RACHEL STONE

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B RITTANY N UNN

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senior art director: JYNNETTE NEAL

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designer: K ATHRYN R OCHA

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designers: L ARRY OLIVER, KRIS SCOTT, WENDY MILLSAP

contributing editors: KERI MITCHELL , JEFF SIEGEL, SALLY WAMRE

contributors: GAYLA BROOKS, SEAN CHAFFIN, GEORGE MASON, BLAIR MONIE, ELLEN RAFF

photo editor: DANNY FULGENCIO

214.635.2121 / danny@advocatemag.com

photographers: MARK DAVIS, ELLIOTT MUñOz, CHRIS ARRANT, KIM RITzENTHALER LEESON, DAVID LEESON

copy editor: L ARRA KEEL

interns: HILARY SCHLEIER, PERI BOWDEN, BRANDY BARHAM, JAMES COREAS, JUN MA , JENNIFER SHERTzER

‘Black at the Assassination’ adds an overlooked perspective

Kyndal Robertson and Camika Spencer won teco theatrical Productions’ new play competition in March with their one-act play “Pious.”

“Not only did we win — we won accolades from people we didn’t even know,” Robertson says.

So when the theater company’s owner, Teresa Coleman Wash, wanted to produce a play about the JFK assassination from the black perspective, she called on the playwrights.

The Oak Cliff natives, who are first cousins,

began working on the play that would become “Black at the Assassination,” which opens Oct. 17 at the Bishop Arts Theatre Center.

They started by researching what was going on in the city’s black community at the time. They read Elite News founder Bill Blair’s biography, which gave them some perspective on the overall culture at the time. They combed through the Warren Commission

Report for people of color. And they conducted interviews with family, friends and acquaintances.

“It’s Dallas’ story of black people at the assassination. You can’t Google that,” Spencer says. “It’s a big historical moment in our city, and we had no idea what our community was doing.”

The play’s story is told in five vignettes. The

Kyndal Robertson and Camika Spencer: Kim Ritzenthaler Leeson

first takes place in a fifth-grade classroom and is told from the 10-year-old perspective of Brenda Spencer, Robertson’s mom.

“Their classrooms were all portables,” Robertson says. “Her classroom was the only one with a TV because her teacher had brought one from home to watch.”

The second story is that of another real person, Joe R. Molina, who worked at the Texas School Book Depository.

Robertson and Spencer interviewed Molina, who they say doesn’t like to talk about his JFK connection. According to Molina’s Warren Report testimony, Dallas police came to his home in the middle of the night soon after the assassination, woke his whole family and searched his house before asking him to come in for questioning. The chief of police told the local news media that Molina, a 16-year employee of the book depository, had been associated with “subversive persons.”

Molina was fired about three weeks after the assassination because of rumors that he was a communist and a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, although Molina worked only on the second floor and said he never knew Oswald. Molina had trouble finding another job after that.

“He was blackballed,” Spencer says.

The stories in the play are fictional but based on these real-life accounts.

Along with tales of the assassination, the play travels through time over the decades until the present, with a view on “progress and the plight of Dallas through the years,” Robertson says.

Spencer, 42, is a singer for Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, a teacher and an artist. Robertson, 33, is a singer and actor who works full time at the UT Southwestern cancer center.

“I’m glad Theresa had the light bulb for this,” she says.

Their first play, “Pious,” is a comedy about “these two ornery old black church women who are on their way to the worst wedding ever,” Robertson says. The writing duo has expanded that play and will produce it again in November.

—Rachel Stone

brand

> Swimming pool

> Outdoor fireplace

> Walking trail

> Dog park

> Fitness room

> Theater room

> Great room with fireplace

you’ve been waiting for this lifestyle your whole life. it’s time you enjoy the view.

painting with a twist

> Meeting room with TV

> Storage closets

> Washer & dryer connections

> Controlled access gates

214.468.4722

HighPoint Senior Living, in the Oak Cliff area, is designed to offer an abundance of recreational and functional amenities and features that set a new standard in senior lifestyle. We welcome you to discover a friendly community that delivers an uncommonly comfortable and affordable way of life. highpoint

the goods

Chef

Justin Holt is in charge of the Driftwood kitchen while chef/owner Omar Flores is busy starting up Casa Rubia, which could open as soon as October in Trinity Groves. Holt was a cook at Lucia, and he initiated a pop-up restaurant trend in Oak Cliff after he asked Ten Bells Tavern to let him use their kitchen for ramen nights earlier this year. Holt sometimes runs ramen as a special at Driftwood, but the menu largely is Flores’s. “I’m excited to work for Omar,” Holt says. “He’s super intelligent.” Holt says he also enjoys working in a seafoodfocused kitchen, rare for Dallas, he says. And even though he lives in north Dallas, he says he likes the people in Oak Cliff. The menu at Driftwood changes about four times a year. One thing that’s always on the menu is Flores’ signature char-grilled octopus. A three-course tasting menu costs $35 on Tuesdays. Follow Justin Holt on Twitter, @j_holt83, to be in the know on his pop-up dinners.

DriFTwooD

624 W. Davis

214.942.2530

driftwood-dallas.com

AMBiAncE: cAsuAl finE dining

PricE rAngE: $10-$29

Hours:

5-10 P M., TuEsdAy-sATurdAy

1 The Fish

this restaurant, from Oak cliff resident christopher Stanford, has been open only a few months at Jefferson and Polk. excellent fish tacos and decadent crabmeat hushpuppies will have you craving more.

1001 W. Jefferson

214.942.6000

2 Zen

the sushi is among the best in Dallas, but Zen is more than just a sushi place. entrées include miso-marinated chilean sea bass, ginger risotto with sashimi-grade salmon and tokyo ramen with pork and vegetables.

380 W. seventh

214.946.9699

zensushidallas.com

3 Mesa

If the lobster enchiladas are good enough for beyoncé, they are good enough for us.

118 W. Jefferson 214.941.4246

mesadallas.com

Buccatini with trumpet mushrooms, petite mustard greens, chicken skin, scape puree and garlic blossoms: Elliott Muñoz

rachel stone

Deal or no deal?

Three Wishes Chardonnay (about $3) California

Can a wine drinker survive on $3 wine? Probably, given my experiment with five $3 chardonnays from Dallas retailers. The wines weren’t spectacular, but they mostly delivered value — and what more can someone want from a $3 wine? The biggest problem was not quality, but that the wines were boring. By the fourth night, I was ready for something else.

• Two-buck Chuck ($2.99), the Trader Joe’s private label. This was the weirdest of the five, with lots of tropical fruit (banana even) and very little chardonnay character. It wasn’t bad in the sense that I had to pour it down the drain, but it wasn’t enjoyable, either.

• Three Wishes ($2.99), the Whole Foods private label. I expected most of the wines to be burdened with badly done oak (chips, probably). In fact, three of them didn’t taste of oak at all, and the oak in the Three Wishes was quite well done, assuming you like that style of wine. I don’t, so it wasn’t my favorite.

• Winking Owl ($2.89) from Aldi. My favorite — a straightforward, 1990s-style jug chardonnay with apple and pear fruit and varietal character for those who remember Glen Ellen. I would buy it again.

• Oak Leaf ($2.97), the Walmart private label. This was sweet, probably a couple of percentage points over the line that separates sweet from dry. Again, not awful, but nothing I’d buy again.

• Cul-de-Sac ($2.96), a private label for Central Market. This was sort of sweet, in the way Kendall-Jackson was in the 1990s, but also tasted like chardonnay. —Jeff Siegel Get more dininG news every week on oakcliff.advocatemag.com

with your wine

Sweet and sour pork

Buy the country-style pork ribs, mix them with the sauce, and cook in a slow oven. What’s better as the weather gets cooler?

Grocery List

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

4 pounds country-style pork ribs, separated into single ribs

1 onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first eight ingredients together and place in a large Dutch oven with a lid.

2. Add ribs, onion, and bell pepper and mix well. Cover oven and bake for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until ribs are fork tender. Serves 4, takes about 3 hours

Ask the wine guy

What’s the difference between Old World wines and New World wines?

Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden

The Dallas Arboretum made history with the grand opening of the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden. This 8 acre one-of-a-kind garden is the world’s most elaborate and interactive garden for children. Designed to enable both the young and the young-atheart to experience nature as they enjoy playing in a museum without walls. Tickets must be pre-purchased online.

Open now with the nationally acclaimed Autumn at the Arboretum festival, featuring over 50,000 pumpkins, gourds, and squash.

Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden

Texas Skywalks and Habitats

www.dallasarboretum.org

Texas Skywalks and Habitats

Real Estate Just Got Personal

—Jeff Siegel

Wine made in Europe is made in the Old World style — less fruity and more earthy. Wines made elsewhere, including California and Australia, are New World, are fruitier and cleaner. As with all generalizations, there are exceptions, but this is true more often than not.

ASK The Wine Guy taste@advocatemag.com

Out & About

Oct. 12-13

October 2013

Fall home tour

The Old Oak Cliff Conservation League showcases some of our neighborhood’s most beautiful and interesting homes in its annual fall home tour. Seven Oak Cliff neighborhoods are represented in the tour, which features 12 homes, including one with a Cold-War era bomb shelter (left). Proceeds go toward grants for the league’s member neighborhoods. Last year’s tour raised more than $10,000 for grants. Tickets are available at the Tom Thumb stores on Hampton, Mockingbird at Abrams, Lovers at Greenville and Northwest Highway at Interstate 75. ooccl.org, $12

Oct. 4-5

Intestinal demons

“Bad Milo!” is a comedy/horror film about a guy whose digestive problems turn out to be caused not by stress but by a demon living in his intestines.

The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson, thetexastheatre.com, 214.948.1546, call for show times and ticket prices

Oct. 5-27

Cyclesomatic

The annual month of bicycle love includes a bike brewery tour, the photovelo scavenger hunt, a Bonnie and Clyde ride, bicycle swap meet, ride to City Hall and the Spooky ’Cross cyclocross race. bikefriendlyoc.org

Oct. 9-13

Video Fest

The Dallas Video Fest takes place at the new Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson.

The festival, founded by Oak Cliff resident Bart Weiss, is in its 26th year. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 100 S. Central Expressway, videofest.org

Oct. 18

Jimmie Vaughan

Kimball High School’s own returns to the old hometown for a show with his Tilt-a-Whirl Band at the Kessler Theater. Lou Ann Barton also performs. The show starts at 8 p.m.

The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis, thekessler.com, $25-$43

Danny Fulgencio

Oct. 19

The Mumbles

This New Orleans-based band performs its funk-soul-jazz-pop sound in Oak Cliff. The show starts at 9 p.m. The Foundry, 2303 Pittman, cs-tf.com, free

Oct. 19-20

Urban Bazaar

The Urban Street Bazaar returns this month with dozens of local crafters at Make and Made’s revamped studio, near the site of the planned Bishop Arts streetcar stop. Shop 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Make and Made, Seventh and Zang, 214.941.0075, themakesite.com, free

Oct. 26

Blues, Bandits & BBQ

The festival of smoked meat moves to Kidd Springs Park this year, from noon6 p.m.

Kidd Springs Park, Tyler and Canty, bluesbanditsbbq.com, tasting tickets cost $20

Oct. 5

Pumpkins galore

The 11th annual Kessler Pumpkin Patch and Art Fair brings the family fun with a performance from Floramay Holliday, a petting zoo, pony rides, games, a cake walk and, of course, pumpkins and fall photo ops. Last year’s event raised $16,000 for the Kessler School and Kessler Park United Methodist Church. Kessler Park United Methodist Church, 1215 Turner, thekesslerschool.com, free

Unembedded in najaf

an Oak Cliff couple photographed a harrowing siege in iraq

The cover photo from “Unembedded”: Thorne Anderson

Story and Photos by Danny Fulgencio

Thorne Anderson’s gear included a white bandana. The bandana cushioned a lens, but also signaled a simple phrase when waved in war zones: “Please don’t shoot me, please.” He says he first carried one in Kosovo, then in Macedonia, Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“To this day, when I carry my camera

equipment, I still have a white bandana in there. It’s a weird thing that I can’t get over,” Anderson says from his Winnetka Heights bungalow.

“Lot of good it does you now,” quips his wife, Kael Alford. She’s also a photographer and educator. They drive modest sedans to teach photojournalism: she, at Southern

Methodist University, he, at the University of North Texas.

They met 18 years ago in grad school and taught journalism in Bulgaria shortly after the Bosnian War. During subsequent conflicts in neighboring Kosovo and Macedonia, they found themselves being shot at while photographing refugees and rebels.

Sometimes they worked separately, not seeing each other for days, only to share a few moments at some border crossing before taking taxis in opposite directions.

Alford says there was some ambivalence in working tandem: They watched each other’s backs but were also competitors. Still, she says she preferred them together.

“I don’t like it when I’m far away and he’s reporting,” she says. “I’d rather be there and reporting, too.”

“Isn’t that a little superstitious?” Anderson asks. “Because I travel on my own all the time.”

“Yeah, but you’re better off when I’m around.”

Their work was often dangerous and rarely lucrative. So why do it?

“There are a lot of journalists that feel that they are part of something bigger than themselves, and they are putting their lives into the service of contributing to a broader understanding of these important events,” Anderson says.

Four months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Anderson wrote a letter to friends and family saying, “Some of you have written to me with concerns for my safety in Iraq, but this was easily one of the safest assignments I have taken.” Ten years after the invasion, and having left Iraq, Anderson says, “On the whole, it was the most dangerous conflict I’ve ever covered.”

In March 2003, Alford and Anderson were freelancing in Baghdad, poised to photograph the Iraq War’s next installment. Their work and that of a few colleagues would later fill an unflinching photo book titled “Unembedded.” They were among several dozen Western journalists who opted not to embed with coalition forces. Instead, they based themselves in cheap Baghdad hotels to document the war’s civilian impact.

But the popular Western narrative just after the invasion was about liberation, not photos of grieving fathers, dying mothers and dead children — or a nascent insurgency for that matter.

“Already in April 2003 there were attacks against the U.S., but that story was not really given much credibility in the U.S. media,” Alford says.

Still, Alford and Anderson spent weeks earning trust from civilians-turned-rebels in Sadr City who patrolled streets with Kalashnikov rifles, buried remote-controlled bombs and let their children play with a couple American photographers.

Alford and Anderson later drew criticism for covering insurgency.

“We’re third-party observers,” Anderson says. “And I think it’s important for us to see what it looks like on the other side of the line. We feel like we’re contributing to the dialogue — an important dialogue — in understanding this war a little deeper.”

By August 2003, sectarian rebellion thundered across Iraq. Thousands of disaffected Shiite Muslims rallied behind Muqtada alSadr, a cleric who opposed Iraq’s provisional government and the Americans supporting it. Al-Sadr and his militia, the Mehdi Army, had relocated south of Sadr City to Najaf, among the holiest cities in Shiite Islam.

A skirmish with U.S. Marines soon spiraled into a three-week urban siege with 4,000 American and Iraqi troops surrounding some 2,000 militiamen.

Temperatures neared 125 degrees in the siege’s second week, and along dust-colored city blocks, Anderson waved his white bandana. He, writer Phillip Robertson and their

Photojournalist Thorne Anderson was trapped inside the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf for three days in 2003: Kael Alford

Kael Alford, who now lives in Oak Cliff, served as an independent photojournalist in the early stages of the Iraq War: Thorne Anderson

second translator successfully threaded through Najaf and across a final street before reaching the battle’s epicenter: the Imam Ali Shrine.

Robertson later wrote, “Fighters on the other side of the street took us in, and there was an innocent, human quality in this moment that I cannot describe even a year later.” The militiamen easily could have killed the Westerners, but instead escorted them to the shrine’s gates and turned them loose inside, where hundreds of civilians and militamen took refuge.

The ceilings and walls of the ancient gold-domed shrine were alight with a galaxy of multi-colored tiles. There, Anderson found a French journalist who’d been shot through the leg. She was evacuated by the ambulance servicing the shrine’s makeshift infirmary.

Anderson received word via satellite phone that Time Magazine wanted his coverage from inside the shrine. He thought he’d have 10 days to shoot and deliver, but was given only three. There was another inconvenience: The satellite phone was low on power and couldn’t handle transmitting photos. Charging wasn’t an option.

Despite having gone through great pains to get into the shrine, including an averted kidnapping and being pinned by gunfire, Anderson would have to leave the shrine and somehow pass through thousands of gunsights to beat his deadline.

Alford was outside Najaf’s Old City photographing civilians. When she and Anderson spoke by phone, she told him she wanted to join him.

“She kept asking, ‘How did you get in there?’ ” he says. “And I kept saying, ‘Don’t try to do what we did.’ So, I was worried she would try to get into the shrine.”

Conversely, Alford worried about Anderson getting out of the shrine, which was relatively safe. Though militiamen were disarmed upon entering the shrine, and U.S. Marines were precluded from killing those within its walls, anyone beyond was a potential target.

Without an escape plan, Anderson photographed among the shrine’s warriors and worshippers for three days. Some militiamen were from Iran, some in their teens, some barefoot and at least one bound to a wheelchair. So many stories, so little time.

Above/ A man walks down a ruined street near the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, 2004: Thorne Anderson

Below/ A father shows his hand to snipers as he carries his terrified child across the frontline in Najaf, 2004: Kael Alford

And again and again, Anderson saw militiamen charge down Prophet Street only to “see those very same fighters come back in wheelbarrows in mangled, broken pieces.”

He also saw people cracking under combat stress. Some wept. Tempers flared. Explosions impeded sleep. Shrapnel whined like loose lawnmower blades into the shrine’s marble courtyard. And then there was the shrine itself, with its blood trails and broken toilet.

“This beautiful shrine,” Anderson says, “which is the center of their religious identity, was falling into disrepair day by day by day.”

Anderson says the Iraqi government and American military “were both considering storming the shrine, which would have had really devastating consequence to the relationship between Shiite Islam and the West for decades — for generations to come.”

Anderson phoned Alford. He hoped to catch a ride out of the shrine in the ambulance, but it was disabled by gunfire. Before they solidified an exit strategy, the phone died. He was trapped.

The day of his deadline, Anderson says the militamen began chanting, “The journalists are coming! Don’t shoot!”

He ran to a gate and saw a pack of journalists walking toward the shrine. Robertson later described their arrival as “a species of miracle.”

Alford had brokered a ceasefire so a convoy of journalists could report from inside the shrine, and upon leaving, Anderson and his companions could escape the siege. Alford says it wasn’t a completely selfless plan: “Yes, I wanted to get him out and I wanted him to be safe. But almost equally, I wanted to get in.”

When the couple finally had a moment alone in the shrine, it would have been socially inappropriate for them to hug or kiss. Instead, they gently squeezed hands.

“And then,” Anderson says. “We went about working as we normally do.”

Reporters filtered through the shrine for photos and brief interviews. Robertson wrote, “Hundreds of fighters were at the gate as we left. They all knew us.”

At the Najaf Sea Hotel, there was no time for celebration. Anderson barely stayed an hour. He was on deadline and anxious to

file photos. Alford was displeased. They both were.

“On the one hand,” Anderson says, “it’s what we had been doing as journalists in the last 10 years. But on the other hand, it’s still something to this day that I feel shitty about.”

So he waited with bated breath on the floorboard of a car as it motored toward Baghdad through Sunni towns notorious for kidnapping and killing journalists.

The shrine never was stormed. The militia abandoned Najaf after surrendering its weapons.

One Marine Corps battle study claimed the militia suffered 1,500 fatalities while the U.S. lost 11 troops. No one knows for sure how many civilians died. Regardless, the Mehdi movement later gained major parliamentary traction despite U.S. opposition.

A few months after the siege, Anderson and Alford left Iraq.

“It seemed like we were starting to push our luck too much,” Alford says. Journalists increasingly became targets as security waned and Iraq slid toward civil war.

Readjusting stateside took years. Anderson says he feared crowds, fireworks, heavy traffic and less quantifiable demons. Alford says she actually misses covering conflict: “I don’t miss all the anxieties and stresses of it, and the danger of doing it, but I miss the meaning of it. And it’s hard to find anything that’s convincingly as meaningful.”

Given the disproportionate rate of divorce and separation among war veterans, perhaps it’s not only extraordinary that Anderson and Alford survived, but survived as a couple.

“I feel like my life is divided into parts: my youth, the time I spent covering war and my present life,”Alford says. “So, I’m glad to have someone nearby who helps connect those threads.”

Anderson sees his life differently, as one continuous experience, from having been the kid who crashed his wagon and broke his collar bone to being a husband having a beer with friends in Oak Cliff.

“I don’t feel like I need Kael to heal my past,” he says. “Rather, my present is the accumulative experiences of my past, and Kael’s a huge part of that. That feels awesome to me.”

•

•

In the trenches Visit oakcliff.advocatemag.com for more photos and stories about Oak Cliff residents Thorne Anderson and Kael Alford, journalists who were embedded in Iraq, covering the war from a different and dangerous perspective.

Kon-Tiki revisited

An Oak Cliff resident sailed the Humboldt Current for 47 days

Story by rachel Stone | Portrait by Kim ritzenthaler Leeson

Eight people, one reed boat with cotton sails and no engine, 2,500 miles. That’s how Greg Dobbs got to Easter Island.

He and seven other people sailed from the coast of Chile to Easter Island on a boat made of reeds harvested from Lake Titicaca. Their vessel, Veracocha, is the only reed boat to make that journey in modern times.

“At the turn of the millennium, I went down to Chile to meet a friend of mine who had been in Costa Rica,” says Dobbs, who lives in Oak Cliff and owns J.D. Tree Service.

The friend’s childhood hero was Thor Heyerdahl, the legendary Norwegian adventurer who in 1947 sailed a balsa raft named Kon-

Tiki 4,300 miles from Peru to French Polynesia.

Dobbs’ friend was preparing for the reed boat-trip, and he invited Dobbs along. Their journey would be challenging at times, but in hindsight, Dobbs says, they were lucky to arrive at Easter Island after only 47 days at sea.

They set sail Feb. 25, 2000, and they sailed the Humboldt Current to test Heyerdahl’s theory that ancient migration to Polynesia could’ve come from the West and not just from Asia.

“It was a very beautiful experience, getting out there and seeing the blue, blue water and the stars,” Dobbs says. “We saw a lunar

eclipse, which we didn’t even know what was happening.”

Their supply of fruits and vegetables ran out after a few weeks, but they had plenty of water and staples such as rice. The hull of their 70-foot ship attracted fish to its shade. So whenever they wanted meat, they could drop down and reel in tuna and mahi mahi from the ocean.

The boat had no running lights, and they had a few close calls with freighters in the night. Once, the wind died and the boat lulled for nearly four days, drifting in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight.

The captain, who became a celebrity in Chile because of this mission, called in daily reports to the media.

“We just read and fished and took turns at the tiller and mapped our way,” Dobbs says.

Dobbs says he felt a surge of emotion when Easter Island finally came into view. Upon their arrival, the locals treated the

37TH ANNUAL HOME FESTIVAL

sailors like rock stars. They stayed on the island about a month.

“We were invited to locals’ homes, and they had an itinerary for us every day,” Dobbs says. “We got to see a lot of stuff that tourists don’t see.”

He met men who can free dive 30 feet to spear a fish. They ate sea urchin — a sushi chef’s prize — pulled straight from the sea, cracked on a rock and squeezed with lemon.

Almost every night, the locals played drums and ukuleles. They drank Chilean wine and feasted on ceviche.

“They would put flowers on you, and they made up a song about our expedition and sang it for us,” Dobbs recalls.

They visited, went fishing, rode horses and slept on the beach. Once, Dobbs slept next to one of the larger-than-life mo’ai, the mysterious ancient statues for which Easter Island is famous.

Dobbs has been an adventure traveler since college, when he traveled to Central America and, with friends, sailed a schooner from Guatemala to Mexico to Cuba.

Dobbs’ experience on the Veracocha was so great that in 2003 he returned to Chile for a reed-boat expedition that was to travel to Easter Island and then all the way to Australia.

On the day they embarked, the Chilean Navy pulled their ship past the breaker, but the rope came loose and washed the ship back to the beach. It was still seaworthy, but it had a tilt.

“That was a sign probably not to go, but we went anyway,” Dobbs says.

Winds pushed them toward southern Patagonia, and on this voyage, they were at sea 78 days. As they approached Easter Island, their boat was sinking, and the navy had to tow them in. They never made it to Tahiti and Australia.

“I think the first trip was just beginners luck,” he says.

Dobbs, second from right, with the Veracocha crew and a mo’ai on Easter Island.

Neighbors

Four Oak Cliff neighborhood associations came together to help Dallas Animal Services. The Elmwood and Winnetka Heights neighborhood associations, Kessler Neighbors United and Kings Highway Conservation District donated $200 each to buy four new microchip scanners. The scanners are used to find the owners of lost pets that have microchip IDs.

Education

Mayra Millan, a 2013 graduate of Adamson High School, was interviewed on KERA’s “Speak Out: An American Graduate Special.” Millan, who is a Gates Millenium Scholar at Texas A&M University, talked about the challenges of completing high school and graduating third in her class as the daughter of a single mother. The program is available at kera.com/ graduate.

Business

“John F. Kennedy: A Community Remembers” is an exhibition of art and memorabilia on display in the lobby of the Bank Tower at Oak Cliff, 400 S. Zang, through mid December. The exhibition is free and open to the public, courtesy of the building’s managing partner, Oak Cliff resident Ralph Isenberg.

Good Shepherd epiScopal School

11110 Midway rd, dallas TX 75229 gsesdallas.org / 214.357.1610 Located on the corner of Midway and Northaven, gses provides each student the kind of dynamic, vigorous school experience parents should expect in Dallas. gses is the preeminent Prek-8th grade Dallas school where 98% of our graduates get into their top two high school choices! Inquire and imagine the infinite possibilities! Parent visitations: Pre-k & Kinder, Tuesday, October 8, 2013 at 9:00 a.m.; Middle school, Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 9:15 a.m.; Lower school, Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 9:00 a.m.

lakehill preparaTory School

leading to Success. 2720 hillside dr., dallas 75214 / 214.826.2931 / lakehillprep. org Kindergarten through grade 12 - Lakehill Preparatory school takes the word preparatory in its name very seriously. Throughout a student’s academic career, Lakehill builds an educational program that achieves its goal of enabling graduates to attend the finest, most rigorous universities of choice. Lakehill combines a robust, college-preparatory curriculum with opportunities for personal growth, individual enrichment, and community involvement. From kindergarten through high school, every Lakehill student is encouraged to strive, challenged to succeed, and inspired to excel.

ST. john’S epiScopal School

848 harter rd., dallas 75218 / 214.328.9131 / stjohnsschool.org

Founded in 1953, st. John’s is an independent, co-educational day school for Pre-K through grade 8. With a tradition for academic excellence, st. John’s programs include a challenging curriculum in a Christian environment along with instruction in the visual and performing arts, spanish, german, French, and opportunities for athletics and community service. st. John’s goal for its students is to develop a love for learning, service to others, and leadership grounded in love, humility, and wisdom. Accredited by IsAs, sAes, and the Texas education Agency

The original Oak Cliff superbowl

BBULLETIN BOARD

Classes/Tu T oring/ l essons

JEWELRY Making Parties at Art Gallery. BYOB & creativity. All else included! jewelrymakingparty.com or 1-855-254-6625

MATH Shouldn’t Get In The Way Of Anyone’s Dreams. I Tutor Algebra To Calculus. Test Anxiety & ADHD Are My Specialties. Jonathan. 972-957-7020 holisiticmathtutoring.com

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t O advertise call 214.560.4203

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p e T s ervi C es

In-Home Professional Care

Customized to maintain your pet’s routine In-Home Pet Visits & Daily Walks

“Best of Dallas” D Magazine Serving the Dallas area since 1994

Bonded & Insured www.societypetsitter.com 214-821-3900

Buy/ s ell/Trade

FRONT-ROW DALLAS STARS SEATS Join neighborhood group in sharing two Dallas Stars season tickets. We’ll randomly draft seats prior to the season, and everyone has a chance to draft all seats except Opening Night. Seats are in the front row of the Platinum Section, front row of the Upper Level, and second row on the glass next to the Stars goal in the 1st and 3rd periods. Tickets are priced at what I pay the Stars. For info, call 214-560-4212 or rwamre@advocatemag.com

OLD GUITARS WANTED Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, Martin. 1920s-1980s. Top dollar paid. Toll Free 1-866-433-8277

TEXAS RANGERS FRONT-ROW BASEBALL TICKETS

Share prime, front-row Texas Rangers baseball tickets (available in sets of 10 games) during the 2013 & 2014 season. Prices start at $105 per ticket (sets of 2 or 4 tickets per game available). Seats are behind the plate and next to both the firstand third-base dugouts. Other great seats available starting at $60 per ticket. Entire season available except for opening day; participants randomly draw numbers to determine draft order so the selection process is fair for everyone. E-mail rwamre@advocatemag.com or call 214-560-4212 for more information.

TOP CASH FOR CARS Any Car, Truck. Running or Not. Call for Instant Offer. 1-800-454-6951

BOUNCE HOUSES • SLIDES • MARGARITA MACHINES POPCORN MACHINES • PIÑATAS • CHAIRS • TABLES (214)941-7440 - www.pinatacity.com

1705 W. CLARENDON , DALLAS TX 75208

November DeADLINe october 9

e s TaT e/ g arage s ales

ESTATE SALES & LIQUIDATION SERVICES

Moving, Retirement, Downsizing. One Piece or a Houseful. David Turner. 214-908-7688. dave2estates@aol.com

Adamson High school wide receiver Joaquin Bustillo intercepts the ball during the Adamson vs. Sunset football game Sept. 6. Adamson beat Sunset 40-6: James Coreas

Sunset running back Julio Gonzalez finds an opening: James Coreas

Business Resources

To Adver T ise 214.560.4203

AC & HeAt

AIR CONDITIONING & HEATING Repair, Service, Replacement. Honest & Affordable. JB Maintenance. 214-404-1457 LIC# TACLB 17612E

Local HOME SERVICES

eleCtriCAl ServiCeS

4 U ELECTRICAL SERVICE, LLC We will be there 4 U. 972-877-4183

ANNA’S ELECTRIC Your Oak Cliff Electrician Since 1978. tecl25513. 214-943-4890

ANTHONY’S ELECTRIC Master Electrician. TECL24948 anthonyselectricofdallas.com Family Owned/Operated. Insd. 214-328-1333

LAKEWOOD ELECTRICAL Local. Insured. Lic. #227509 Call Rylan 214-434-8735

MORIN ELECTRIC New/Remodel.Com/Res. Panel Changes/Full Services. All Phases. All Service Work. 469-230-7438. TECL2293

FenCing & deCkS

HouSe pAinting

BLAKE CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS, LLC

Complete Painting Interior/Exterior, Stain Etc. Custom Finishes, Custom Texture, Custom Trim www.blake-construction.com

Fully Bonded & Insured. 214-563-5035

MANNY’S HOME PAINTING & REPAIR

Int./Ext. Sheetrock. Manny 214-334-2160

kitCHen/BAtH/ tile/grout

ALL SURFACE REFINISHING 214-631-8719. Tub/Tile/Refinishing. allsurfacerefinishing.com

BLAKE CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS LLC

Complete Kitchen And Bath Remodels

Tile, Granite, Marble, Travertine, Slate Bonded And Insured. 214-563-5035 www.blake-construction.com

CArpentry & remodeling

ATLANTIS DESIGN-BUILD, LLC

Complete Remodeling. 40 Yrs Exp. Additions. 1 & 2 Story. Kitchens, Baths. Small Jobs To Entire House. Renovation & Design. Full Time Supervision. Licensed/Insured. Free Estimates. 281-761-4648

BLAKE CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS, LLC

Complete Remodeling, Kitchens, Baths, Additions. Hardie Siding & Replacement Windows. Radiant Barrier, Insulation. Bonded & Insured. www.blake-construction.com 214-563-5035

BO HANDYMAN Specializing In Historic Home Renovations & Pro Remodels. Custom Carpentry, Doors, Kitchens, Baths & more. 214-437-9730

HANDY DAN “The Handyman” To Do’s Done Right! www.handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

RENOVATE DALLAS

renovatedallas.net 214-403-7247

CleAning ServiCeS

CINDY’S HOUSE CLEANING 15 yrs exp. Resd/Com. Refs. Dependable. 214-490-0133

WINDOW MAN WINDOW CLEANING.COM

Residential Specialists. BBB. 214-718-3134

ConCrete/ mASonry/pAving

BRICK, STONEWORK,FLAGSTONE PATIOS Mortar Repair. Call George 214-498-2128

#1 COWBOY FENCE & IRON CO. Est. ‘91. 214-692-1991 www.cowboyfenceandiron.com

4 QUALITY FENCING Call Mike 214-507-9322 Specializing in Wood, New or Repair. 214.692.1991

HAndymAn ServiCeS

A R&G HANDYMAN Electrical, Plumbing, Painting, Fencing, Roofing, Light Hauling. Ron or Gary 214-861-7569, 469-878-8044

BO HANDYMAN Specializing In Historic Home Renovations & Pro Remodels. Custom Carpentry, Doors, Kitchens, Baths & more. 214-437-9730

HANDY DAN “The Handyman” To Do’s Done Right. www.handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

Your Home Repair Specialists

Drywall Doors Senior Safety Carpentry Small & Odd Jobs And More! 972-308-6035 HandymanMatters.com/dallas

Bonded & Insured. Locally owned & operated.

HANDY DAN “The Handyman” Remodels Done Right. handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

lAwnS, gArdenS & treeS

IRISH RAIN SPRINKLER SYSTEMS

Installation & Repair. TXL#2738 214-827-7446

JD’S TREE SERVICE Mantels, Headboards, Kitchen Islands, Dining tables.Made from Local Trees.www.jdtreeservice.com 214-946-7138

U R LAWN CARE Maintenance. Landscaping. Oak Cliff resident for over 15 years. uwereisch@yahoo.com 214-886-9202

JD’s Tree Service

RESPONSIBLE TREE CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Firewood/Cooking Wood

moving

ALL-TEX MOVERS Free Estimates. 11Yr. BBB Member. www.all-texmovers.com 214-869-6566

peSt Control

A BETTER EARTH PEST CONTROL Keeping the environment, kids, pets in mind. Organic products avail. 972-564-2495

plumBing

ANDREWS PLUMBING • 214-354-8521 # M37740 Insured. Any plumbing issues. plumberiffic69@gmail.com

Sewers • Drains • Bonded 24 Hours/7 Days *Joe Faz 214-794-7566 - Se Habla Español*

REPAIRS, Fixtures, General Plumbing, Senior Discounts. Campbell Plumbing. 214-321-5943

rooFing & gutterS

NATIONWIDE ROOFING,FENCING,GUTTERS BBB member. 214-882-8719

Allstate Homecraft Roofing

• Roofing & Remodel • Additions • Licensed/Insured

Over 1,000 Satisfied Customers in the Lakewood, Lake Highlands, Preston Hollow, Park Cities Areas – M ETAL S PECIALIST

• Free Estimates 214-824-0767 allstatehomecraft.com

SkyligHtS

Installing Since 1995

Commercial & Residential Replacement, Repair & New Installation Glass – Acrylic – Tubular Skylights

Locally harvested wood!

Full service trimming & planting of native trees. 214.946.7138

972-263-6033 www.skylightsolutions.com

ADVOCATE PUBLISHING does not pre-screen, recommend or investigate the advertisements and/or Advertisers published in our magazines. As a result, Advocate Publishing is not responsible for your dealings with any Advertiser. Please ask each Advertiser that you contact to show you the necessary licenses and/or permits required to perform the work you are requesting. Advocate Publishing takes comments and/or complaints about Advertisers seriously, and we do not publish advertisements that we know are inaccurate, misleading and/or do not live up to the standards set by our publications. If you have a legitimate complaint or positive comment about an Advertiser, please contact us at 214-560-4203. Advocate Publishing recommends that you ask for and check references from each Advertiser that you contact, and we recommend that you obtain a written statement of work to be completed, and the price to be charged, prior to approving any work or providing an Advertiser with any deposit for work to be completed.

Business Buzz

The lowdown on what’s up with neighborhood businesses

Send business news tips to livelocal@advocatemag.com

Tyler/Davis shake up

Big changes are happening in the Tyler/Davis area. David Spence of Good Space bought the 90-year-old retail strip at the northeast corner of the intersection. Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters launched its café and showroom, Davis Street Espresso. The café is open Tuesday-Friday from 6-11 a.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m.-2 p.m., serving coffee drinks, plus treats from Rush Patisserie and Vera’s Bakery. Oak Cliff Winery has been open for several months at the southeast corner, selling local wine. Attorney Chad West bought and renovated the building across the street for his new law offices, which are now open. From the Ends of the Earth has moved to the 400 block of North Tyler. A little further down the street, Oak Cliff-based artist Michael Savoie opened Savoie Gallery at 212 S. Tyler. His first exhibition, “Expensive Waste,” opened last month.

Restaurants pop up

The “permanent pop-up” restaurant at Trinity Groves, Kitchen LTO, opened last month with a modern French/American menu from Chef Norman Grimm and designs from Coeval Studios. The restaurant will change chefs and concepts early next year. Also coming soon to Trinity Groves are Casa Rubia, from Driftwood chef Omar Flores (see page 11), chef Sharon van Meter’s Beignet Bidge Club, Resto Gastro Bistro from chef DJ Quintanilla and Luck, a kitchen and bar concept. The Local Oak, a new place from Alycen Cuellar, Felix Garcia and Paul Delgado, was expected to open at Zang and Davis in September.

Grocery makers

No, Trader Joe’s is not planning a store in Oak Cliff, so far as we can tell. But two new groceries are on the horizon in our neighborhood. Cox Farms Market is under construction at Sylvan Thirty, and the developer is expected to hand over the 11,000-square-foot building to the locally owned grocer this month. The store could open as early as December. Urban Acres, which already has a storefront on West Davis, raised almost $40,000 through a kickstarter campaign to build its ”urban farmstead” at Beckley and Greenbriar. The revamped grocery will include a café, aquaponic system, chicken coop, bee hives and a garden.

Get in ContaCt

Good Space 408 W. Eighth 214.942.0690 goodspacE.com

Davis Street Espresso 819 W. davis 214.929.6752 oakcliffcoffEE.com

Chad West PLLC 900 W. davis 214.509.7555 chadWEstlaW.com

From the Ends of the Earth 411 N. tylEr 214.942.1030

Savoie Gallery 212 s tylEr 972.800.4787

Kitchen LTO 3011 guldEN 214.377.0757 kitchENlto.com

Casa Rubia 3011 guldEN triNitygrovEs.com

Beignet Bridge Club 3011 guldEN triNitygrovEs.com

rEsto gastro Bistro 3011 Gulden 214.701.3468 rEstogastroBistro. com

Luck 3011 guldEN facEBook.com/ luckdallastx

The Local Oak 409 N. ZaNg 214.946.4625

Cox Farms Market 1026 s maiN iN duNcaNvillE 972.283.8851 coxfarmsmarkEt.com

Urban Acres 1301B W. davis 469.248.2270 urBaNacrEsmarkEt.com

the faces of urban acres: danny fulgencio

oak C liff.advo C atema G C om/ B iz

more business buzz every week on

The weed eaT er wen T away.

numbers

Herson Galeote had been doing some yard work that day — definitely not fun on a hot August day in Dallas. After trimming up the yard, he placed the weed eater on his porch and went inside for a nice cold drink and a bit of relaxation after a hard day’s work. The trimmer stayed there, but he had placed it behind some other items on the porch.

The Victim: Herson and Mayra Galeote

The Crime: Theft

Date: Tuesday, Aug. 13

Time: 7 p.m.

Location: 900 block of South Brighton

Later that night, the couple heard some noise on the porch. The noise was definitely out of place and gave them a bit of a fright.

“I was going to look outside, but I was too scared,” says Mayra Galeote.

Her husband opened the front door and noticed the weed eater was gone — and the front gate was open. Just beyond the gate, he saw a man driving away. The whole experience was a bit unnerving and will cost the family about $100 for a replacement.

Sgt. Kay Hughbanks with the Dallas Police Southwest Patrol Division says it is always important to keep anything of value in a garage or shed. This type of crime is one of opportunity, and thieves always look for easy targets.

“People really need to make sure they don’t leave things out on their porches,” she says. “People walk up on backyards and porches all the time looking for valuables.”

A bit of precaution could keep a thief away.

Oak Cliff insurance agencies have been robbed at gunpoint since July 26, and police believe one bandit is responsible for all of them

$480

$150

Cash and a money order for $325 were taken in the Aug. 29 stick-up of an agency on West Illinois

Cash was taken in the armed hold-up of Baja Auto, which police believe the same robber committed

Source: Dallas Police Department

All the news th At didn’t fit

A few fun historical facts we didn’t have room to print

Comment. Visit oakcliff.advocatemag.com/backstory to tell us what you think.

While writing and researching this monthly Oak Cliff history column over the past four years, I invariably end up with too much text. Not a good thing. I almost always have to pare down the word count and, unfortunately, some of the material ends up on what could be called the journalistic version of the “cutting room floor.” It’s painful, but what must be must be.

Here, however, are a few samples of the some of the juicy tidbits that had to be deleted.

The February 2010 column on Oak Cliff golf could have included the fact that after it opened, Stevens Park Golf Course expanded by gobbling-up a smaller, adjoining course: the El Tivioli course. Originally named the Dal-Cliff Golf Course, then the Cliffdale Golf Course, these fairways were

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Howard Hughes did indeed hanger several executive jets at Red Bird Airport (now Dallas Executive Airport), fueled and ready to fly, and under 24-hour armed guards.

constructed in the early 1920s on the old Julien Reverchon botanical garden property, purchased by Reverchon’s father, Maximillian, from the disbanded La Reunion Colony’s conservator.

In the same column, I also noted that the Dallas National Golf Club (on almost no one’s radar screen, as it’s hidden behind Mountain View College and heavily protected) is quite prestigious. What I didn’t have room to share was that, according to those who know, it is reported to check all the boxes on any golfers’ “superlative list.” One of the top courses in the country and No. 1 in Texas, course designer Tom Fazio states, “If Dallas National were the only course I ever designed, I feel I would have had a great career.” Described by just

about everyone as being the re-creation of a Texas Hill Country or East Coast facility, all those who review courses say that it’s a place where golfers need to bring their “A” game.

Another item I wasn’t able to include is that Dallas National is where pros such as Lee Trevino practice and play, and also where President Bush plays golf. Condie Rice has joined him there, along with other movers, shakers and high profile folks. Yep, right here in the O.C.! Who knew?

I wrote about the Moreno family in March 2011. A story I didn’t tell was that when I served on the faculty at my alma mater, Kimball High School, fellow teacher Aurora Moreno laughingly told me one day that her daughter, now Hollywood actress

Belita Moreno, would not speak Spanish with her parents. “She only wanted to speak English English only,” Aurora said. And, evidently, Belita also made sure to drop the Latino-style pronunciations. If you notice on the TV show “George Lopez,” the character George (who was raised by single parent “Benny, played by Belita) speaks English, with a Latino accent. But “Benny” doesn’t. And now you know why.

Bonnie and Clyde headlined my July 2011 Eagle Ford column, which noted that they are, of course, famous for robbing banks (although they mostly hit up small town stores and the like), but didn’t have room for the fact that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow actually robbed only one bank in Dallas County: the bank in Lancast-

top/ Dallas national Golf Club. Above left/ the former Red Bird Airport, now Dallas executive Airport. Above right/ Belita moreno

er, just a few miles over the Oak Cliff line. Also, readers researching the couple’s activities back in the Eagle Ford/Oak Cliff neighborhoods may become confused with the street names mentioned. When Dallas annexed Eagle Ford in 1948, some of the street names had to be changed because the City of Dallas already had used them elsewhere. Several street names in Winnetka Heights and other nearby neighborhoods were simply attached to existing Eagle Ford streets that were more-or-less extensions of these Oak Cliff streets, and the old names disappeared. Howard Hughes, interesting as he was, didn’t make it into the April 2011 story on Red Bird Airport. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hughes did indeed hanger several executive jets at Red Bird Airport, fueled and ready to fly, and under 24hour armed guards. Posting a comment to the original online column, Jerry Felts, who worked at the airport when he was a teenager and was sometimes responsible for refueling these planes, said he would drive the refueling apparatus and tank to the hanger and then hand the hose (through a slightly opened door) to someone inside. Felts commented about how, had the fire marshal known at the time, there would have been major trouble.

oakcliff.advocatemag.com/backstory

Contrary to some urban legends, one of Hughes’ planes at Red Bird (now Executive Airport) wasn’t the Spruce Goose, which only took flight once and never left California.

My first Cliffites in Hollywood column that ran in May 2013 talks about Spanky McFarland, but stopped short at saying that upon his retirement, Spanky McFarland returned to the Dallas area and lived in Keller. After his death in a Grapevine hospital, McFarland was honored by the State of Texas by being interred, along with other famous and historically significant Texans, in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. His mother, Virginia Phillips McFarland, graduated from Oak Cliff High School in 1922 and lived in Duncanville at the time of her July 30, 1993, death at Charlton Methodist — only 30 days after losing her son. Spanky’s sister, Amanda McFarland Hall, a former city councilwoman and popular Realtor in Cedar Hill, passed away in 2009. She, along with the rest of the McFarlands, lived their lives in and around Oak Cliff before they left for Hollywood in 1931 and after their return in 1944.

As you can see, my cutting room floor stays full!

Gayla Brooks can date her neighborhood heritage back to 1918, when her father was born in what was then called Eagle Ford. She was born at Methodist hospital and graduated from Kimball High School. Brooks is one of three co-authors of the recently published books, “Legendary Locals of Oak Cliff” and “Images of America: Oak Cliff”, and writes a monthly history column for the Oak Cliff Advocate. Send her feedback and ideas to gbrooks@advocatemag.com.

Bonnie and Clyde